The bulk of this Kaliokan history is from records maintained by the elves and some by the dwarves. The humans tend to be less interested in recording what is happening and more interested in making it happen, and the various Emperors have had a penchant for changing historical records to meet their whims and for purposes of propaganda of one political faction over another.
The dates are BC (Before the Compact of the races) and AC, (After the Compact of the races).
From 10,000 to 8,000 years BC- The Kalios rule Kalioka. The Kalios have three slave races under them: the Ogres, the Arachnalians, and the Corax. The Ogres are the soldiers and heavy laborers, the Arachnalians are the cleaners, farmers, and servants, and the Corax are the skilled laborers, messengers, and scouts. The Kalios did not use fire or allow it, but were very powerful mages and so were able to build mighty edifices and forge great tools and weapons with their magic. Occasionally old Kaliokan ruins are discovered. Their buildings, tools, and are always sources of wonder and fear.
8,000 BC the Kalios are engaged in a war with elves on another continent. They are victorious and bring home tens of thousands of elvish slaves to work in the fields.
6,800 BC the Kalios continue their campaign of exploration and conquest, encountering dwarves and bring back tens of thousands of them, impressed with their mechanical skill.
Approx. 6,500 BC the temperatures on Kalioka begin a slow rising trend.
6,000 BC The Kalios become concerned about the steady increase in temperature, which now amounts to Spring starting in May and an identifiable summer in late July to mid-August. As the Kalios are very hot-blooded (legends tell of their blood being hot enough to scorch elves when they spilled it) they cannot handle temperatures above 80 degrees at all for periods longer than an hour or so and become uncomfortable above 50 degrees.
5,500 BC Temperatures continue to rise. The Kalios begin to retreat North and up into the mountains. The slave races attempt to use the newly created sanctuary in the south, but the Kalios continue to hunt to the southern coast in the winter, and tracking and slaughtering escaped slaves becomes a festive winter sport.
5,000 BC The Kalios now can no longer travel to the southern edge of the continent in the winter. The slave races begin to band together, though there is much friction, as the Ogres and Corax are discovered to have an extremely unpleasant disposition outside of the confines of the Kaliokan slave barracks. Towns begin to form along the southern coast. The Kalios attempt to wage a remote war using enchanted automatons and ogrish soldiers conditioned for loyalty, but the abilities of the escaped slaves are great enough to repel these attacks (particularly the elves, who have clandestinely learned magic from their masters).
5,000-4,000 BC The War of Warmth begins. The races begin a defensive war of survival with the Kalios, with the elves leading. For the Kalios, the war is also with the rising temperatures, as they are driven further and further north and up into the mountains. The escaped slaves do not actually win any battles, but are able to hold off the Kalios� retributive strikes in a number of cases, guaranteeing their continued survival.
4,000 BC The Kalios finally disappear up over the northern mountain range, into the arctic circle. The elves and other slave races do not pursue.
4,000-3,600 BC The Slave�s Peace Begins
3,600 BC The Corax and Ogres invade Dwarvish lands. The Dwarves are hard pressed to hold off their attackers. Much of Dwarvish lands is lost to the Corax and Ogres before the Elves finally join the war, but only at the price of being ceded hill country along the eastern and southern borders of the dwarven territory.
3,450 BC The War finally ends, with the elves and Dwarves victorious, the dwarves are greatly reduced in numbers however. The ogres and the corax have flee into the mountains and deep wilderness.
3,200 BC The Elves, still more numerous than the Dwarves, and possessing powerful magics, decide that Dwarves and Arachnalians are �junior races� and unfit for self rule. Too small in number to effectively fight back the Dwarves and the Arachnalians fall under elvish rule.
3,080-3,030 BC The Ogres ally themselves with giants and attack the elvish empire. The giant�s thrust makes it to the elves� capital city before it is stopped and the giants and ogres are driven back.
3,020 The dwarves attempt to secede, but are still too few. A vicious civil war ensues, lasting 8 years.
3,000 - 2,000 BC The elves rule their empire, playing the Arachnalians off against the Dwarves when necessary. The Giants, Ogres, and Coraxi, attack intermittently, but are never unified enough to hold seized territory for longer than 10 years.
2,463 BC The Elves create a race of brute servants, to do heavy labor for them. The Murani were slow witted but powerful, but the elves found them to be very irritable.
2,070 BC The asp men begin to appear in the swamps of Kalioka. Because the swamps are considered worthless by the elves and dwarves, only the Arachnalians have to contend with them. The asp men slowly drive the Arachnalians out of the swamps.
2,012 BC A fleet of 19 ships ranging in size from 5 galleons, to 2 little ketches, arrives on the SW shore of Kalioka. At first thinking them to be a new race of elf, elvish historians and priests quickly discover that this is an entirely new race: humans. The humans say they are refugees from an oppressive empire. They are welcomed in guardedly.
1993 BC The human leaders offer to buy an expanse of wasteland and plains on the southwestern border of the continent, using money and magic items they have brought, made, and earned in the last twenty years. The humans are granted this land.
1984 BC The elves discover that the humans have the widespread practice of sacrificing sentient beings (other humans, elves, dwarves) to their evil gods. Repulsed they declare the gods outlaw gods, and attempt to force the humans to worship the elvish gods.
1982 BC War breaks out. The Dwarves and humans attempt to attack the elves together, but 3 mighty elvish wizards;Hin Leis, Biar Rekat, and Jurosh, are able to rout the human and dwarvish armies.
1970-1560 BC The Elven empire continues.
1925 The First Bloodsinger school is started. Humans begin practicing the arts of assassination, poison, disguise, and spying. The Bloodsinger school acts as a training ground and a clearinghouse for innovative ideas in assassination, swordplay, poisoning, and demolitions. The Bloodsinger schools later branch out into bard schools and thieves guilds, but all teach swordplay.
1890 The Academy is started as a secret training area for humans wishing to master magic. Using spells stolen and bought from elvish mages, the humans begin training themselves in magic.
1740 A branch of the Arachnalian species moves underground, out of the trees. They call themselves the Chuross. They claim that Arachnalian society has grown weak and stagnant, and the race has become one of �weak minded, domesticated, servants�.
1690 The Chuross numbers have grown substantially. The first all-arachnalian civil war breaks out, between the Chuross and Arachnalians. Eventually the elves come in on the side of the Arachnalians against the Chuross.
1680 The Chuross go into hiding, and are rarely seen, except as attackers in the night.
1650-1620 Another wave of attacks by Ogres and Giants rocks the empire. The elves fight back, this time pursuing the giants and ogres further and further back into wild places and mountains. Against the Giant and Ogre home ground advantage, the elves lose many warriors, and are eventually forced to settle for reestablishing border towers.
1600 Some of the humans embrace the god Maclev, god of beasts, and in exchange are given the power to change into beasts. Lycanthropy is introduced to Kalioka.
1560-1500 The War Of Blood Rivers: The Humans ally themselves with the dwarves and the giants. The elves are slammed on three fronts. The humans utilizing their now substantial magical ability, along with roving teams of lycanthrope guerillas, and Bloodsinger assassins. The Murani rebel as well. The elves fight back with their great skill brought by long life, but they are too heavily outnumbered. They are driven back into their forest fortresses, with the humans and dwarves burning the forests as they approached. All sides suffer terrible losses, except for the Giants and Ogres. The Giants and Ogres turn on their allies, attacking their cities while the Humans and Dwarves are off fighting the elves on the southern front (the Giants were supposed to be fighting on the Northern). The elves use this opportunity to counterstrike. The War ends when the dwarves and humans form up defensive lines and solidify their hold on their lands, preventing further Giant or Elven incursion, the elves do the same.
1500-1400 A hundred years of border wars follow. Since the Dwarves directly border both elvish and Giant lands along a huge front, they suffer the brunt of the attacks. Their subterranean lifestyle affords them greater defensive capabilities, but the Giants and Elves are able to starve the Dwarves out by continually burning their crops. The humans are willing to sell food, but only what they have as excess, and at exorbitant rates. After 6 years of poor crops for the humans, the Dwarves sue for peace with the Elves.
1400-1370 The Humans attempt to punish the Dwarves, and discover that one hundred years of war and famine has left only the toughest, meanest, most vicious fighters Kalioka has ever seen, while the Humans have had it relatively easy. Only the Human�s magical abilities prevent the Dwarves from totally annihilating them. The Elves and Dwarves counterattack against the humans.
1370-1330 The Dwarves and Elves are able to take a swath of human lands, driving the humans further south. Eventually, however, the advance stops as the Elven and Dwarven armies must secure their borders against the Giants to the north.
1330-1070 A period of relative peace. All three races rebuild and focus on internal matters and defensive measures. Border skirmishes occur periodically. Tensions build between the Dwarves and Elves and that alliance eventually frays to the point where there are once again 3 separate nations. The elves and dwarves are still subject to the predation of giants and ogres, but without other problems, they are able to handle them effectively.
1292-1281- A huge force of sahaguin appears on the eastern coast, along with giant intelligent sharks, crabmen, and greater sea wolves. They begin raiding coastal towns. The coasts become dangerous, and both elves and humans mount patrols by ship, though these patrols frequently take heavy losses, sometimes from when the two races meet.
Eventually alchemists are able to formulate a cheap formula for water breathing potions, allowing the battle to be taken to the sahaguin lairs. Once this is done, the raids decrease substantially.
1206- A kaliokan ruin is discovered 30 miles off the elvish coast. Adventurers rush to explore it.
1211-1220- A plague begins to spread simultaneously in the Human lands and elven lands. It starts in the two coastal towns that were common stepping-off points for adventurers exploring the kaliokan ruins. The theory that is advanced is that it was brought back from the ruins. The plague sweeps through both populations, taking a larger toll among the humans, (around 30% mortality) but also high among elves (15%) and dwarves (9%).
1150- A dwarven smith named Nehera develops a method for making light, flexible, high strength steel that holds a very sharp edge. He begins producing high quality weapons in quantity.
1134- Nehera is kidnapped by humans, and taken back to the human lands. Simultaneously, his apprentices and journeymen are assassinated.
1130- A team of elvish assassins finds Nehera and kills him in the human capital. With him, the secret of Nehera steel is lost.
1100ish- The Academies of Magic in Vistalor make tremendous discoveries in the areas of necromancy and abjuration. At the same time, the Elven Council Of Mages developes a number of new spells of evocation and divination.
1087- Dwarven engineers develop the self-powered siege engine. It runs on steam and electricity and mostly magic.
1080 to 943- The Over One Hundred Years War. Unfortunately, what caused the leaders of the three nations to start this has largely been lost in time. What is known is that it started when a band of Vampiric murderers began ranging across the Dwarf/Elf border.
Including one mage and one priest, this group of 7 vampires decimated three villages on the elven side of the border. The elves tracked the vampires to the dwarvish border, and were then denied passage twice (a group of 50+ heavily armed elves, imagine that). The third time, the vampires had taken 10 elves prisoners (presumably for later) and the elves were out for blood. This time when they were stopped at the border with 150 elves, they simply overwhelmed the border guards. The elves pursued into the dwarven territories, deeper and deeper, following a trail of drained elf corpses. They were drawing near to their prey when they were stopped by a band of dwarven warriors. And a steam automaton. The ensuing battle lasted all day (the vampires escaped) until casualties on both sides were very high and the elves retreated back over their borders. Both countries were now agitating for blood. Now normally the humans would have been ready to ally with the Dwarves (again) or possibly the elves (for variety) but the emperor at that time was dying, and all of the lesser nobles and families were waiting for him to die. What was not expected was that he would suddenly RECOVER COMPLETELY but be UNABLE TO APPEAR IN DAYLIGHT.
Soon, the various factions, who had been licking their chops over a nice bloody civil war, were considering the possibility of growing old and dying before their emperor died. There was some movement to remove the undead Liege but this was hindered by the disappearance of anyone who attempted to move against him. Those who had been around during the emperors prime commented that at one time he had been a feared assassin and warrior in his own right.
But even with these prophylactic measures, it was only a matter of time until the surviving nobles rose up against their undead and increasingly crazy emperor.
Soon the continent was torn by the bloodiest war in recorded history, as the elves and dwarves contended against one another, the humans fought amongst themselves, and the sahaguin, giants, asp men, and even Chuross took targets of opportunity in the chaos, growing fat and powerful.
Year after year the wars ground on, with much ebb and flow, and with an ever growing body count. Only the carrion birds and evil races seemed to be able to prosper. And the vampires. Their numbers seemed to be increasing, including elvish and dwarvish vampires. The dwarvish war machines rampaged down into elvish lands, leveling cities, while the elves were like quicksilver in the forests and mountains, using their speed to wreak havoc and hit the dwarves where they were weak.
And along their borders with the humans, old animosities flared up into fresh fighting.
The war was not fought continuously, in 1017-1003, 991-987, and 967-964, there were lulls in the war that almost led to peace, and then another bloody �incident� would occurr, and the whole thing would start back up.
Finally, in 952, a team of Humans and Dwarves discovered the existence of a network of vampire saboteurs, who were attempting to weaken all the nations to the point where vampires could seize power, turning the continent into a vampire nation. The wars continued (frustratingly and maddeningly) but now that they knew what to look for (the elves were also informed) the 3 nations began developing secret teams, sometimes jointly.
These teams hunted the vampires to their lairs and gathered what information they could about the vampire network. And as they delved they found that not all in the network were slaves of the vampires, some were part of the network as paid servants, some were allied with vampires to advance political goals, and the worst were those who wanted to gain the immortality of vampirism for themselves. And many of these were in positions of power in the government and military, and began to oppose the vampire hunters.
But there were too many who had already lost all and would not stop until those truly responsible were punished. For every vampire hunter slain, two more were willing to take their place.
In each country the quiet civil war broke open into an open civil war, with the dwarves being the first to defeat the vampires, and began to give aid to the humans. With the dwarves help, the humans were able to drive the vampires out. Finally, small teams of human vampire hunters traveled into the elven lands to assist the elves in their undead wars.
976 BC- The Dwarves develop Frak, a type of mushroom which grows on volcanic heat and nitrogenous waste. Frak is not terribly tasty, nor are there a large number of areas underground where they can be grown. But Frak IS a food source which can be grown underground, vastly improving the ability of the Dwarves to withstand sieges.
943 BC- The End Of The Undead war: Without the vampires to keep things going, the 3 nations were finally able to establish peace. But by the time the war had ended, the nations had suffered terrible losses in manpower and land, the giants had nearly free run of the continent, the sahaguin raiders made regular forays from the coasts and up the rivers, and the Churros had begun cities around the continent.
940-810 BC- Long years of hardship as each of the 3 civilized races fought famine, bitter cold, and the predations of the evil races. On different occasions, each was near to being wiped out, but was able to struggle back. The humans were the first to rebound, with their faster breeding rate.
925 BC- A flight of blue dragons is sighted by the dwarves approaching from the west. They disappeared into the mountains.
920 BC- Another flight of dragons is seen by the elves, also coming from the west. These dragons are green dragons, and disappeared into the forest.
915-905 BC- Individual dragons are seen throughout the mountains and forests, more flights are seen over human lands, blue, and black.
810-750 BC- The human empire expanded further and further, while the elves and dwarves still struggled against the onslaughts of the giants. The dragons have begun to prey on villages and small groups.
710 BC- The Human empire, having spread to the doorsteps of the Dwarves and Elves. The Humans offer both membership into the empire. In exchange for military alliance with the human army the humans will provide food to the dwarves. The Dwarves and Elves need only submit taxes and give up their legal autonomy. Oddly enough, neither accepts.
695-700 BC- Giants overrun the Dwarven nation, the dwarves hole up in their underground cities. The dwarves are able to smuggle in food and subsist on Frak and Frak stores. Meanwhile, the Giants range into human territories.
690 BC- The Humans invade the dwarves, setting up bases and fortifications throughout the mountains. The Dwarves protest, but are unable to dislodge the humans. The humans begin to use the mountains as a staging area to strike against the giants.
683 BC- The Humans succesfully drive the Giants back up past the northern barrier peaks. And still do not leave the dwarven lands.
682 BC- The dwarves counterattack at the end of the first month, when the human�s supplies should be low. It turns out the humans have made allies with some dwarves, and the dwarven war parties are neutralized by a combination of traitors, magic, and reinforcements smuggled into the bases, giving them surprise numbers. The dwarves are captured and shipped to camps in the human territory.
In the spring, the legions assault the dwarven underground cities, assuming that with most of their army gone, and help from the inside, they will have an easy time taking the cities.
They are wrong. After the first betrayal the remaining dwarves were able to track down the traitors in their midst. So while most of the soldiers were gone, those who remained were unhampered by saboteurs. The Human legions are met by a force of women, children, cripples, and the old. But with the defenses of the dwarven cities (after 13 years to prepare) the force is able to hold off the human legions initially.
682-678 BC- The Dwarves are besieged. The cities fall one by one, with the capitol falling last, after 4 years. The Dwarves are integrated into the human empire.
671-662 BC- The Sahaguin rise up again, led by Ulok Prek, a Sahaguin God who commands legions of Sea Beasts. The Sahaguin Legions advance from the west, neatly splitting the area between the elven and human nations. The elven warriors, having faced relatively light opposition in the past, leapt to the defense, and took terrific losses from the Sea Beasts (giant squid, aboleth, sahaguin berzerkers, and giant crabs). Led by the brilliant tactician Therocus, the humans gave ground, adopting a scorched earth policy. As the Sea Creatures were forced to travel further over land, many of them became weaker. The humans, finally drew their opposition into a �pocket� raining fire from siege catapults and ballistae before engaging in battle. By the time the humans engaged the Sea Beasts, they were already worn down by travel and fire, and were much more manageable.
660 to 647 BC- The humans regrouped and turned their attention to the weakened elven forces. Again under Therocus in his last campaign (for the last year and a half, he was carried in a litter for much of the time), the humans were able to take about 1/2 of the elven territory before deciding to halt their advance at the River Keladora. They used elven slaves to strip a swath of forest along their boundary and used it to build a wall.
That wall still stands in most places (Therocus� Wall, said to be haunted by the souls of the elves who died in it�s construction).
643 to 494- A �golden age� for Humans, and Dwarves and Elves get to rebuild. The elves who previously lived in the Southern part of the continent are moved to various settlements throughout the Human empire. The elven communities are mostly in swamps or the other areas the humans have not already settled.
617- The dwarves develop the Kurboch, a breed of war dog which they hope will provide them with substantial defense, just as the elves war beasts help augment their numbers.
Kurboch are about 70 kg with �lock jaws� which continue to bite even after death.
The Kurboch prove to be very popular among the dwarves.
601- Kurboch prove to have one small disadvantage, they are a little TOO aggressive. On numerous occasions they attack and kill their masters and/or their families. Those dwarves who own Kurboch begin to be a little more cautious. There are also reports of feral Kurboch in the wild.
595- Feral Kurboch become increasingly more common. With them, attacks by Kurboch are also more common.
587- The keeping or breeding of Kurboch is outlawed in the human empire. By now packs of Kurboch have joined many other creatures as part of Kalioka�s unique ecosystem. Thousands more dwarves die this year in the process of trying to �euthanize� their 150 pound death machines.
578- The legendary �bet� between Sarmok, Kalerian and Copela. Sarmok boasts that he is a greater hunter than Copela or Kalerian, and then the others get to boasting. So each of them proceeds to hunt various creatures, first for number (adjuti, telpari) then strength, (dragons and giants). Finally, as Sarmok does seem to be besting them both, and Kalerian is besting Copela. (In some accounts Sarmok is cheating, but that�s largely a theological debate at this point). Copela begins hunting Sarmok�s priests.
Sarmok doesn�t know who is doing this, so he retaliates by hunting Kalerian and Copela�s priests. Kalerian, who is not the odds-on favorite in the Kalioka uptake races begins hunting both humans and dwarves (trying to figure out who the priests are is too much trouble).
By this time, Elayna, Kenessa, and Enlor are kind of ticked off, so they begin causing animals to frenzy and generally heighten their natural aggression, as well as causing a few temples to Sarmok, Kalerian, and Copela to disappear under waves of animals.
Lakisa attacks Sarmok defending some humans priests of Copela.
Elayna and Copela finally cross paths. The battle lasts for 2 days until Shorath joins Copela, and Elayna is forced to flee.
In a few weeks, a continent wide God War is brewing.
It is headed off when Corellian and Clangeddin lean on Lakisa (who really doesn�t want to fight two other pantheons) into a compromise. Sarmok, Copela, and Kalerian are each given a week to hunt one another, with the winner being the survivor or whoever yields first.
At the end of the competition all three have disappeared.
For 5 years Sarmok, Copela, and Kalerian cannot be found.
Finally, a dwarven hunter encounters a huge (2x normal size) adjuti. He hunts it for 3 days before finally bringing it down. As he approaches to give the death blow, it scratches the sign of Sarmok. After seeing this the hunter brings a priest of Clangeddin. The priest contacts Clangeddin, who comes down. After 3 days Clangeddin is able to free Sarmok from his form. It seems that Elayna, Kenessa, and Enlor joined in the original hunt, captured each of the other gods, and transformed them into Adjuti. The others had their memories removed, but Sarmok was able to save the memory of his name and symbol.
The other gods have a good laugh about this and Elayan, Kenessa, and Enlor are forced to free the other 2 gods. By now the rest of the gods realize how close this foolishness brought them to another god war and decide that the original three were justly punished.
494- Tain and Lakisa have their now Mythical falling out. Tain, in a moment of high spirits introduces another plague into the world. Lakisa, who has always disliked Tain, is once again repelled by the random death he introduces to her well-ordered equations. She informs him that he will no longer introduce diseases without her permission.
Tain responds in actions by releasing a wave of plagues into the world. 4 to be exact.
They start in the Empire but spread very quickly to the other races.
492-The human population drops by 50% in two years. The elven and dwarven populations are also hit hard. (20 and 30% respectively). The elves see this as a human problem and therefore a chance at the revenge they�ve been thirsting for.
They drive deep into the human lands, pushing past the debilitated humans with ease. They extend well into the middle of the empire before being forced to stop.
Phimara, Naros, Shule, and Elayna meet, and together, they begin to work on the 4 plagues. Corellion is ambivalent but he decides that by the time they develop cures, the humans will be back where they should be, serving the Elves. Besides, these plagues are wiping out the elves too.
488- The disease continues to decimate the humans and now the elves and dwarves are also beginning to suffer more significant losses. (Human population is now down by 65% and the elves and dwarves by 30 and 45%)
The giants and sahaguin, sensing weakness, begin to march.
486- The giants and sahaguin attack the humans first, as they are the source of most of the trouble when they have invaded in the past. The dwarves, debilitated, simply hide in their mountain strongholds and pray for deliverance from the diseases. Those giants who test the dwarves strength find that even feverish, the dwarves maintain impregnable defenses.
The humans, on the other hand, aren�t so lucky. Their defenses having consisted of walls of bodies in the past, which are now in desperately short supply. Shule and Jal appear on the battlefields, directing and aiding the humans in their defense as city after city is razed by the two forces.
The giants and sahaguin very quickly encounter the elven force. It is not a happy meeting. The elves begin to retreat back towards their lands. At this point the elves might have been decimated if a human force led by Paladins of Shule had not drawn off a large part of the giant's army. The humans waged a hit and run harrying of the giants for two days before the giants were finally able to trap them. The humans were killed to a man.
The disttraction allowed the elves to face a force that was only sahaguin and a small number of giants. The elves retreated to the human city of Halise where they, and the humans they had recently conquered, engaged in a battle for their lives as they attempted to repel the Sahaguin force. The battle lasted a day and a half, after which time the sahaguin retreated. The elves and humans had only that night and a morning before the force of giants returned. This time the elves helped the human women and children flee back toward the elven lands while a force of elves kept the giants occupied for one week in the city.
The humans survived, the city did not, neither did all but a very few elves.
The giants pursued the remaining elves but the week's lead time gave them a chance to prepare defenses that allowed the elves to repel the giant force at the edge of their lands. The force was still largely intact however.
The giants turned back towards the humans to the south. Scrying their approach and knowing that they would be able to mount no military defense, the human mages fell on a last ditch plan. Using the height of their necromantic powers, the necromancers from across the empire gathered together. The began a ritual that lasted from sunset one day, through the second day, through the second night, and into a third day. By the third night the mages were sustained by stimulants and force of will. The giant force was almost upon them. Knowing that the necromancers would not have time to finish the complete ritual, their leader, Josek Furzok, made the decision to remove specific parts.
As the giants entered the outskirts of the city, the abridged ritual was completed. For ten miles around the site of the ritual, the ground bore a strange fruit. The corpses of those who had died in the last five or ten years (a prodigious number between the war and the plagues) rose up. They were not zombies, but a strange new form of undead. They immediately moved to intercept the giants. Directed by the necromancers, the new undead bore into the giants. The battle was vicious and horrible to behold. On the one side were the giants, on the other were the newly minted undead, stronger and faster than a normal human, but unarmored and mostly unarmed. Every swing, every step of the giants felled 2 or 3 of the undead, but there were thousands. And those who were crushed, rose again a little while later, their injuries healed.
After a few hours the first giant was felled by the undead, many of whom had taken to wielding makeshift clubs and spears, and other weapons they had made. The other giants were treated to a horrific sight as the undead began to tear their fallen comrade apart. They did not even eat the flesh, but attached it to their own bodies. They then turned on the other giants. As the battle wore on, the giants began to tire, while the undead remained as tireless as ever. The giants took to wielding huge torches, having discovered that fire put the undead down permanently, but this came too late. By now the giants were exhausted. It was only with dawn that they discovered that the undead become lethargic and weak in sunlight. They take this opportunity to flee from the undead army. The giants continue to flee and the war is over.
485- The elves and humans rebuild. All three races are still struggling to deal with the 4 plagues. The necromancers controlling the undead attempt to sieze control of the empire, but priests of all varieties end these plans. Then a disturbing discovery is made. Each necromancer has a number of undead they control. When the necromancer is slain, the undead become free willed. They disappear out into the wilderness.
484- Phimara and Shule release a cure/treatment for two of the plagues.
483-Phimara and Shule release a treatment for the third plague. The fourth has mostly disappeared.
At midnight during the summer solstice celebration 4 of the most powerful necromancers disappear, along with their controlled undead. As the summer wears on, other necromancers disappear. At first some sort of giant curse is suspected. Then in mid-September, the 9th victim is able to escape. The attacks have been made by bands of undead. They have been killing the necromancers to free their fellows. And what is more, the necromancers have risen up as undead themselves, casting spells to aid their killers.
The remaining undead still under control are destroyed by fire.
482-450- The undead spread across the continent, increasing their numbers, first by 'awakening' those interred during the wars of the last ten years, and then by preying on lone individuals and small groups of people.
By 450 they are a common danger. The races of kalioka have taken to burning their dead so that they do not rise up again. And the new race of undead has a name, coined by dwarves facing loved ones recently buried. Velyakoi, meaning, 'beloved'.
Still, the velyakoi are not organized enough to group together in teams larger than twenty. Usually. But a group of even a half dozen can prove formidable. Stronger and faster than humans, regenerating damage, and the fresher ones being able to pass for human in dim light or with the help of perfumes or colognes. The velyakoi prove to be too often cunning. And they are embraced by both Tain and Mikara, so that priests are not uncommon among their number, nor are mages, warriors, or rogues. All who reanimate as velyakoi retain the skills they had in life.
During this period the elves have lost their taste for conquest. There are overtures of peace from the elves towards the humans, but these stall in bickering over borders (as they always seem to). Human numbers return to their pre-plague levels slowly. The dwarves have fared the best in this time. And they begin buying lands using weapons, gold, and gems as trade. The Empire, needing money more than land at this time, is happy to oblige.
The dwarves begin to strengthen trade ties with both the elves and humans.
